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Julie Thomas from ValueSelling Associates shares insights on the art of strategic questioning in C-suite sales calls. Thomas emphasizes that both senior executives and new salespeople often underestimate the power of strategic questioning and its potential for improvement.
Thomas identifies a common gap: the belief that strategic questioning is a skill that can be honed. She attributes this to a combination of inadequate formal training and a misunderstanding of the role of questions. According to Thomas, questions are not just tools for gathering information. Exceptional questions can build trust, uncover hidden challenges, spark innovation, and create organizational value.
C-suite Sales Call Prep: Identifying Areas of Impact
Thomas advises utilizing AI-based tools for efficient research and call preparation. AI can extract highlights from earnings calls and summarize key business drivers and analyst questions within seconds, saving valuable time. The next step is leveraging human creativity and predictive skills to identify areas where your solution can uniquely impact the prospect’s business drivers.
Respectful, Impactful Sales Questions
Thomas provides a hypothetical scenario to illustrate her approach:
Your Role An account executive (AE) for a MarTech company specializing in ad automation, typically targeting marketing VPs in subscription-based revenue companies.
The Target Company Acme Computing focuses on new customer acquisition but maintains a conservative forecast despite their efforts.
The Sales Questions Open-ended Questions:
- “I understand that new customer acquisition is top of mind for Acme this year. How does this impact your role?”
- “During your latest earnings call, the conservative forecast for new customer acquisition stood out to me. Could you elaborate on this approach?”
Probing Questions:
- “You mentioned building the demand-gen infrastructure to improve market penetration. Is the pace and scale of this project affecting your customer acquisition projections?”
- “If you had a partner providing proven ad infrastructure, would this accelerate your time to launch?”
Confirming Questions:
- “From your perspective, it’s not the strategy or delivery workflows that are hindering progress, but the demand-gen infrastructure—am I correct?”
Thomas emphasizes the importance of focusing on pressing business drivers and understanding how your solution can add value.
C-suite Sales Call Practice
Thomas highlights a common dilemma: balancing the need for selling time with the need for practice. She recommends preparing for executive-level sales calls by formulating open-ended and probing questions based on thorough research. Role-playing scenarios with AI-powered technology or managers can further refine these questions. This approach builds confidence and ensures effective selling behaviors.
Julie Thomas’s insights underscore the significance of strategic questioning in C-suite sales calls, offering practical advice for sales professionals seeking to make a lasting impact.
